Quiet
by The Hatter Theory
Summary: Sometimes growing up means growing apart, and sometimes growing apart means going away. But you can always come back. *complete*


**Quiet**

**By: The Hatter Theory**

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the rights to Inu Yasha.

Written for the Valentine's Day Exchange for Forsaken Tenshi.

* * *

Kagome sighed happily, leaning back against a tree. Her friends were all consumed with their own small dramas, and she was content to watch in silence. She fingered the giant quilt, a project in the making since she had been sixteen, her own little secret. Two years and a plethora of lessons behind her, it was finished, and she finally had something to symbolize her friends on their special day.

All of them were their symbols, from when they had been little and still let their imaginations run away with them. It looked silly and cobbled together to anyone that didn't look closely. But Kagome knew, and would always remember. Every square had some deeper meaning, and even if her friends didn't recognize their story in it, she would know, remember, and cherish it.

A gust of wind blew, knocking petals loose from the trees around them. No one else seemed to notice, but it was too beautiful too ignore. An unseasonably warm day helped release the scent of the sakura blossoms, making every part of their viewing ideal. Well, almost.

"Kagome made that for me!" Kouga shouted, trying to protect a bento box from Inu Yasha, hugging it tightly to his chest. Repressing an irritated sigh, Kagome knew it was time to intervene, lest the bento go everywhere.

"Kouga-kun, every box has a name on it," She told him gently. "Sango and I made one for everyone. Just check the top, we wrote down names."

"See, see, I told you it was mine!" Inu Yasha fairly crowed. Refusing to roll her eyes at her childhood friend's antics, she sorted through the boxes on the ground, finding the plastic box with Kouga's name on it. Really, they did this every year, and had been since they were little. But it was a comforting sort of ritual. A constant.

"Do you think we'll come back here next year?" Sango asked, her head in her boyfriend's lap. Kagome almost dropped the box she was offering to Kouga.

"Why wouldn't we?" Kagome asked.

"We're all going to different schools soon. Inu Yasha is getting sent to some overseas school by his dad even. When college starts, will we be too busy, or will we make new friends?"

Kagome had often worried about Sango's pessimism. She wondered what would happen when Sango went to a college far away from her. The woman had a point. Would they grow apart? Would they come back next year? Would they bring new friends, or choose to find a new place, a new spot to view the cherry blossoms?

"Forget I said anything, Kags. It's not a day to be sad!" Sango cheered with a false smile. Kagome nodded anyway, letting her own smile brighten her face.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Inu Yasha asked. Kagome swung her gaze, following his line of sight.

If anybody else noticed that when Sesshoumaru walked up, the wind blew the cherry blossom petals around him like something out of an anime, they didn't say anything. In fact, Kagome wondered briefly if she had gone a little crazy to be seeing him there at all. He hadn't come to one of their hanami since he had graduated high school a few years before.

"Don't speak with your mouth full, it's disgusting." He offered no reason for his presence. Instead he continued past his half brother and chose a spot on the quilt. Kagome prayed he didn't notice that his hand was right on top of his own patch, a beautiful blue crescent moon that echoed from days playing youkai and taijiya.

"I'm sorry, Sesshoumaru. We didn't expect you, so we didn't make a bento," Kagome stuttered, feeling the brush rise up the column of her neck to color her face. He was different, although how she couldn't quite put her finger on.

"It's alright. The trees, they are enough."

Still feeling badly while her friends plowed through the yearly treats from Kagome and Sango, she knee walked over the quilt until she was sitting next to him. For any of the others, it would have been silly to try, but Sesshoumaru had always been a little different with her. Maybe because even as children, she hadn't let his manner put her off, instead trying even harder to be his friend.

"Want to share mine?" She asked shyly.

"Is there curry?"

"Yes."

"That would be nice. There isn't a place in England that can make a good curry," He sighed, taking a clean set of chopsticks from their sleeve and poking them into the proffered curry. Once it was in his mouth, Kagome was sure he would melt. No that anyone else would have noticed, but there was a sort of sensual pleasure apparent in the way he ate. Fascinated, Kagome stared as he continued taking slow, languorous bites of her meal.

"If you don't eat something, I'll feel like I stole your lunch," He told her, finally noticing her regard past his love affair with her bento box.

She blushed and stammered something unintelligible. They both enjoyed the treat, eating in silence as the others spoke of their futures.

"Have you decided where you are going?" He asked her as they finished off the curry together.

"I've been accepted to Hitotsubashi," She told him, wondering what he would think of her gaining access to such a prestigious university.

"An accomplishment," He replied with a small nod of approval. She tried not to feel too pleased by the gesture and instead focused on something intelligent to say.

"They have strong ties with other universities overseas. I was thinking that I might try studying abroad some day."

"Ambitious. What will you study?"

"Sociology."

"Traveling will aid that endeavor."

"I would miss it here."

"You can always come back," He answered honestly, as if it was a small thing. She nodded carefully, watching as Kouga noticed his patch for the first time, and comment on how he liked the wolf design while remaining completely obvious to the fact that she had made it with him in mind.

"They don't see it, do they?" He finally asked.

"See what?"

"You made one square for all of them."

"Us. All of us," She corrected, pointing down to his hand. He moved it and noticed the blue crescent moon on a white square decorated with red chrysanthemums. A small smirk tilted up one corner of his lips.

They sat in companionable silence for the rest of their hanami, though their friends did not, and did not seem to notice their bubble of quiet. If they did, it did not seem to matter.

* * *

She sat quietly, hoping. A year had passed, and college had eaten her life, each class taking more time than the last from her schedule. Even working at her family's shrine had fallen to the wayside in favor of completing her courses. But she had taken drastic measures, including several all nighters, to make sure she had time for the hanami this year. Emails had gone out to her friends, and though there had been vague promises to try and make it, nothing had been concrete.

"Hey Kagome!" A voice called out, making her turn in every direction. For brief seconds her heart lifted as she saw a small group of people walking towards her, but dropped when she only recognized one of them.

"Hey Kouga," She greeted, standing as the others ambled over. A petite girl eyed her with suspicious eyes as her arm tightened around Kouga's waist.

"You must be Ayame, Kouga's told me a lot about you," Kagome said warmly as she offered her hand. "Congratulations on your engagement."

The girl's expression relaxed and she shook Kagome's hand.

"He's told me a lot about you too," Ayame offered tentatively, her arm relaxing.

"Where's everyone else?" Kouga asked, looking around.

"They said they'd try, but there weren't any guarantees."

Kouga muttered something uncomplimentary under his breath as they sat and Kagome was introduced to Kouga's two friends, Ginta and Hakkaku, who obviously worshiped the ground he walked on. Despite her own disappointment, she was pulled into the conversation and found herself laughing at the tales the three males spun about their fraternity.

A voice called out, interrupting their camaraderie, and Kagome jumped up, excitement making her slightly clumsy as she tripped over the quilt. When she finally spotted the owner of said voice, her answering smile was so big it was almost painful.

Inu Yasha and a girl she didn't recognize were walking close together, and walking a few feet behind the couple was Sesshoumaru.

"How did you get here?" Kagome asked breathlessly. Out of everyone, Inu Yasha was the one person she hadn't invited, namely because he was supposed to be in college in England, like Sesshoumaru.

"What's the use of having money if you don't abuse the privilege now and again?" Inu Yasha answered with a smirk. "It'll take a month for dad to see the credit card bill, and I'm sure he won't mind once he knows it was for this."

"You're awful," Kagome laughed. "And rude. You haven't introduced us yet," She pointed out.

"You didn't give me a chance, wench," He said with a roll of his eyes. "Kikyo, this is one of my best friends, Kagome. Kagome, this is my girlfriend Kikyo. She's studying abroad and we met in London."

"It's wonderful to meet you," Kagome said with a wide smile.

"Likewise. Inu Yasha has told me a lot about you," The other woman replied with stiff formality. Immediately put off by Kikyo's manner, Kagome tried not to feel offended, hoping it was jet lag that had the woman so tense.

"And Sesshoumaru," Kagome said, turning the other man. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"London does not have hanami," He pointed out. "Or decent curry."

"London's weather sucks," Inu Yasha snorted as he sat down. "They have two kinds of weather. Cold or rainy. Sometimes both."

"It isn't like Japan," Sesshoumaru agreed as he sat down gracefully, and Kagome was surprised to note that he had chosen the same spot as the year before, right next to his square on her special blanket. Instead of saying anything, she took a spot next to him and looked over Inu Yasha's head, hoping to see Miroku and Sango arrive any second.

"Did you make curry?" Sesshoumaru asked, shattering her concentration.

"I did. Need to share?"

"It would be a kindness. We had no time, and the half wit decided ramen would suffice."

She gave him a spare set of chopsticks and everyone began digging into their own foods. Kouga choked down the attempt Ayame had made -a scorched, blackened mess with soggy rice- with an envious eye on the bento Kagome and Sesshoumaru shared. Inu Yasha wolfed down his ramen while lamenting that London had only packaged ramen, and that it didn't even come close to anything in his homeland. Kikyo was frostily silent, not even touching her own bowl. Only when Inu Yasha asked for it did she make a sound.

And once again Sesshoumaru ate her curry with slow, appreciative bites.

"Is London really so bad?" She asked as Inu Yasha and Kouga, after being separated for months, fell into their old routine of bickering.

"It is not so different from here. The same crowds, the same busy pace, but the architecture is different, and the language obviously," Sesshoumaru admitted.

Kagome sighed and leaned back against her favorite tree. Unwilling to admit that she had looked at studying there, as her school had ties with a university there, she kept silent and looked for Sango and Miroku again.

When the daylight began to dim, everyone said their goodbyes, and Kagome hugged her friends, even Sesshoumaru, grateful that they at least, had made the time to come.

"Do you need a ride home?" Sesshoumaru asked as the others departed. "I came in my own car."

"I can take the bus," She told him as she began folding the quilt.

He made a rude noise and began helping her with the overlarge, unwieldy blanket. When it was nothing more than a large, unwieldy square of neat edges, he grabbed her empty bento box and began walking. Given no choice, she followed him to his rental.

"Perhaps next year," She sighed.

* * *

The sky was cloudy and rain threatened, but she sat, determined to wait it out. Hope flavored her staunch refusal to move, both completely obliterating good sense. The day had started out merely cloudy, and she had held out hope. But each minute that ticked by made it a little more difficult.

"If you stay out here, you will fall ill."

She turned to the voice, surprised to see Sesshoumaru standing next to her. A bento box sat next to her side, and remembering the previous two years, she had made an extra helping of curry, not even thinking he would come, but preparing anyway. However, the person she had least expected to come was the only one that had, and she couldn't help but mentally -bitterly- laugh at the irony.

"No one came," She sighed.

He bent down and tugged at the edge of the quilt. For a moment she was going to shout at him, her own disappointment making her feel childish and petty, but her hope gave out under his pointed stare and she moved off of it, ready to fold it up and call it quits. He surprised her by keeping half of the blanket on the ground.

"Sit."

Not willing to argue -or not having the emotional fortitude to- she obeyed silently and sat on the bright patterns she had taken such care to create. The blanket fell over her, obscuring her vision with bright blocks and curves of color. Further shocking her, he sat down next to her and pulled part of it around himself.

"Inu Yasha is failing two of his classes. If he had come, he would have missed a test that might save his grade in one of them," Sesshoumaru explained, although his tone said that he had little faith in his half brother's abilities.

"Oh."

"Did you make curry?" He asked.

With a small nod, she grabbed the bento and opened it.

"More than last year," He replied.

"I had been hoping," She admitted, stung again by what felt like a rejection, although she knew it wasn't. Everyone had responsibilities and their own lives. But a small, childish part of herself kept pointing out that she had come, that she had done everything in her power to make time, and succeeded despite her own busy schedule.

"I'm coming back to study in Japan," He commented after they had eaten.

"I might be going overseas next year."

"Where to?"

"England, or maybe America. I'm not sure yet."

"Choose England, at least they have manners there," He remarked as she closed the bento and pulled the blanket more tightly around her, the cold finally winning the battle.

"Do you think someday that all of us will be leading our lives, completely separate from each other? That the emails and phone calls will stop completely, and everyone will become people we used to know?"

He was quiet for several minutes, eyes staring into the distance, not seeing the spread of cherry blossom trees in front of him.

"Sometimes people grow apart when they grow up," He finally told her. "Our responsibilities take us farther away from one another."

"So it's stupid to think that everyone could try, for one day, to come back together?" She sniffed, tears threatening.

"Not stupid so much as idealistic."

She said nothing after that, her own eyes fixed somewhere off in the distance. Reflecting quietly on her life, she realized that while she did have new friends, people at her school that she loved to hang out with, she didn't share the same memories with them as she did with her childhood friends. Each and every one of them had been her friends since at least elementary school, if not playmates from preschool or before.

"One can always come back," He told her sagely as she sniffed again, small tears escaping despite her efforts to contain them.

"But they didn't."

"Give them time. Sometimes people have to leave before they realize how important something is."

She nodded, although she took little comfort in the statement. When they got in his rental, he opened the door for her and she mumbled a polite thank you, wondering why, out of everyone, he had been the one to show up. Not that she wasn't grateful, but he had always been the last person to expect.

He got in and turned the key.

Nothing happened.

A quiet curse and he was popping the hood. He didn't know how to fix cars, did he? She watched as the hood came up and would swear he was cursing. Two seconds later he was opening the trunk and digging through it, and this time she really did hear him cursing.

"Can you hold this while I find out what's wrong?" He asked, looking grim. She looked from his face to the glow sticks.

"No flashlight?"

"The rental company will hear of this."

She got out and held the glow sticks while he muttered something dark under his breath. For several minutes he didn't seem to know what he was doing, and she wondered if he thought he could fix the car out of sheer stubbornness, but then he seemed to grasp the problem and made a satisfied sound as he began to twist something.

The dark skies rumbled, and the rain that had been threatening all day began pouring down on them, cold and heavy.

"Get in the car," He snapped.

"The light-"

"You'll get sick, get in the car."

She went and grabbed his discarded jacket and draped it over her head and held the glow sticks, trying to hold them where he would be able to see. But whatever his efforts could have been, they were thwarted by the rain.

"I'll call a cab for us," He sighed, bringing the hood down and pinching the bridge of his nose. Dark stains lingered on the strong bridge, and when they got back in the car, she draped the quilt over them.

The smudged black on his face bothered her. Ignoring his sudden flinch she brought the corner of the quilt up and wiped his nose.

"Your quilt-" He began, voice muffled by the fabric over his mouth.

"It'll be another memory," She interrupted, smiling as she finished, smiling when she got the last of it off of his face. They both stayed like that, soaking wet but warm under the blanket until the cab arrived.

* * *

London have proven to be every bit as cold and wet as Inu Yasha had claimed. What she had not expected was to be lonely. However, she had gone hoping to see her friend, and maybe have his help settling in, but he had been too wrapped up in his girlfriend -the ever cold Kikyo- and his nightlife to see her more than once or twice, even though they lived less than three miles apart.

This year she had not sent out invitations due to her relocation, had barely contacted her friends at all, as a matter of fact. Taking their absence the year before as a tacit hint, she had begun slowing down her communications with them, trying to ready herself for what she assumed was the inevitable break. The only thing she kept as a constant was her quilt, and that she used almost year round on her bed, unused to the cold temperatures of England.

It was a pure stroke of luck that had brought her to where she sat now, the Batsford Arboretum. A teacher had asked in an offhand manner if she had gone to see the cherry blossom trees there. Though there was an official week for the viewing, she had stubbornly stuck with the day her friends had chosen in Japan years before. Because it was still early for the trees in the arboretum, they had not reached the beauty they would later on; but she was also alone, and for that she was grateful.

She was absentmindedly rubbing the black smudge on the corner when a shadow stretched across her hand.

"Do you have any curry?"

She looked up, completely and thoroughly flabbergasted to see Sesshoumaru standing there, as if he had every right to be standing there. And she supposed he did, although her mind was having problems coming to terms with the fact that he was there at all.

"I do," She answered dumbly. Nostalgia had demanded it, had forced her to find every ingredient, no matter how difficult, and make her favorite dish.

He sat down on the quilt next to her and looked up at the tree she was leaning against.

"They are not so beautiful as the ones back home," He sighed, looking back down to her.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, still reeling over the fact that he was there. In England. At the arboretum, on the same day that she was.

"I had a feeling you would be here," He replied enigmatically, as though being in England was the most natural thing in the world.

"But-"

"What use is money if you don't abuse the privilege now and again?" He asked, aping Inu Yasha's voice, startling a laugh out of her.

"You came all the way to England just to look at cherry blossoms?" She demanded, feeling strangely lightheaded.

"To keep you company."

"To keep me company?" Every bit of disbelief she felt was reflected in her tone, and she knew she sounded rude, but she really couldn't help herself. It was strange, strange enough that even she couldn't make sense of it.

"And to have some of your curry," He added.

"My curry?"

He nodded once and reached for the bento box.

"Only one set of chopsticks," He observed a minute later. "And you made the normal portion."

"I didn't expect to see anyone."

"You give up too easily," He sighed, sliding the chopsticks out of their case and fluidly scooping a bit of the curry and rice onto them. When he held them in front of her face, she stared down at them as if she had never seen a pair of chopsticks before.

"I've finally given into the pressure and lost my mind," She groaned, still staring down at the curry.

"You have always been a strange female," He sighed, stuffing the chopsticks into her mouth before she closed it. Given no other choice but to chew and swallow or choke, she glared at him.

"I'm strange?" She asked as he took a bite, obviously enjoying the taste of the food.

"You didn't change the recipe," He said instead.

"You're infuriating."

"You're obtuse," He rebutted.

"Obtuse? How am I obtuse?" She snapped.

His gaze met her own, and every angry thought in her head died a swift, silent death. His gold eyes did not blink, did not move, but stayed pinned on her. For a moment she thought she saw something, but just as quickly as she had seen it, it was gone.

"If you do not know, I will not tell you," He informed her, his tone clipped. She was going to say something, but he shoved the end of the chopsticks into her mouth again, effectively silencing her next statement, which she thought for the better. It would have sounded dumb at best.

When they finished he produced her favorite chocolate from back home from a pocket, and she didn't know if the reminder of Japan was sweet or hurt. The dark chocolate melted on her tongue as she savored the almost bitter richness of it.

They stayed that way for several hours, enjoying the silence and finishing the chocolate off slowly, square by square. When he finally stood and said he had to catch an evening plane, she nodded and accepted his offer of a ride back to her dorm. It wasn't until she was getting out that she leaned over the console and hugged him tightly.

"Thank you so much for this," She whispered, not wanting him to leave. More than anything she wanted him to stay, and she was sure she was probably suffocating him, probably annoying him, but she couldn't let go just yet.

"You're welcome."

* * *

It was with quiet anticipation that she waited, leaning against her favorite tree. In the year that had passed, she had come back to her home, and once she had come back, there had been no shortage of outings with Sesshoumaru, each one as strange and wonderful as the last. He had a strange way of surprising her. Visits to small stretches of beach no one else went to, or little out of the way museums that gave her views into her own culture that college never could.

But in the past year, since that strange meeting in England, she had come to realize that what she felt for him was beyond friendship. Despite the fact that he had never exhibited anything resembling something other than simple friendship, she had decided to tell him that day. It seemed appropriate somehow, that she tell him during the hanami.

When he came walking up, she was surprised to see Inu Yasha following,although his fiance was nowhere in sight. Even though she had missed the younger brother even when she was in England, she tried not to feel disappointed. Hopes for the day quashed, she decided that they would have another picnic, one that would be just theirs.

"Hey!" Another voice called out. Inu Yasha stopped and looked over his shoulder, but Sesshoumaru kept walking. However her stomach bottomed out and she stood, feeling strangely anxious as Inu Yasha called out to the people behind him.

"What, hell didn't want you?" Inu Yasha snapped, although there was laughter in his tone. Kouga came sprinting into view, dragging his girlfriend along. His faithful companions followed in his wake, trying to keep up with him.

Sesshoumaru sat on the blanket and looked down at the bento box with a curious glance. It was bigger than normal. She looked down at him in wonderment. She hadn't sent out any reminders this year, and had barely had contact with any of her friends.

"Did you do this?" She asked, but was interrupted by another voice calling out excitedly.

"Sango," She breathed.

As if years hadn't passed since the last time they had seen one another, she ran to her friend and tackled her in a hug.

"I missed you," Sango sighed, hugging her back.

"I missed you too," Kagome admitted.

Miroku came up next to his fiance and they began chatting animatedly about the past few years, their excitement making the words spill out and over each other.

It was with a sense of peace that she watched them go hours later with promises to keep in touch and hang out. Only Sesshoumaru remained, leaning against her favorite tree with his eyes closed. She watched him for several minutes and decided that he had to be asleep, which was strange, because she'd never seen him sleep before.

Feeling just a little impish and more curious than was good for her, she crept over to him quietly, trying not to disturb the blanket beneath them. When he didn't moved, she leaned her face into his and gently kissed him, pulling back almost as quickly as she swooped in. However, his hand came up and behind her neck, forcing her back to the place she had been before.

This kiss was longer and infinitely more involved. His lips were warm and his hand moved to cup her cheek, thumb rubbing her skin absently as his tongue swept across her lower lip. Her chest tightened painfully as a hum rose from his throat and tickled her lip.

When he allowed her to pull away, she was breathing heavily and knew, just knew, that she was blushing.

"It is good to know you feel the same," He said with a smirk.

"It is?" She asked dumbly, still not sure if she had imagined what had happened.

To answer her, he slipped his hand into his jacket and pulled out a small velvet box, the blue fabric matching perfectly with the blue crescent moon on the quilt.

"Indeed. I was worried I would make a fool of myself today."

"What?"

He opened the box, and she looked down at the simple silver toned band that had a sapphire twinkling up at her as it reflected the dying light of the sun.

"Uhm-"

"Marry me."

She wasn't sure if he was asking or telling her, but she was sure that words were not going to work. Instead she nodded, looking up into his gold eyes and seeing them warm.

"When-" She began, but stopped, not sure what she was going to ask. When had he gotten the ring, when had he begun to care for her, when had he decided he wanted to marry her? Any of the above could have easily applied.

"When I left for England, I missed you. I thought it would fade, but it never did," He admitted in his gentle cadence. "I came back to prove to myself that you were not what I remembered. And you weren't, you were more. I was going to give this to you last year."

She remembered the year before in England, when he had surprised her beneath the sparsely decorated cherry blossoms. How angry she had been, even bitter. That he had not given up on her then shocked her as much as his proposal.

"You were going to-" She stopped, realizing how silly she would have sounded, but knowing the rest of her question, he nodded.

"You were too sad then. I wanted you to be happy when I did."

"Is that why you invited everyone?"

"In part. I want you to be happy, and they mean much to you. Today is important to you."

The sensation in her heart was so sharp for a moment that she wondered if it was breaking apart even as it filled with love. Every quiet moment of the past several months with him took on a new meaning, a new light. His surprises for her, always meaningful, made it readily apparent that he had cared about her, done what he could to make her happy in his quiet way.

"I feel like an idiot for not seeing it sooner," She admitted.

"Sometimes it takes going away," He offered with a small smile as he slipped the ring on her finger.

"But you can always come back," She replied, leaning in to kiss him.


End file.
